cumming of age

Tonight I am finally home after several incredibly busy weeks. Highlights include concerts in Iowa and North Carolina, having my first lesson in over a year in the same week as watching masterclasses with David Griffin and Luca Benucci, and seeing unbelievable progress in my studio! Now with a night (finally!) off and a hot chocolate in hand, I have a moment to reflect on a couple notable moments. Last week before heading to Iowa, I had the opportunity to work in the studio recording Hal Leonard band charts alongside members of the ISO and IU faculty. It was a great couple of days and lots of fun. I realized how important it is to trust yourself and to practice sight-reading whenever possible: in the sessions we usually had 2 tries to make it happen, so there was little room for error. I had to go for it on every take and not allow any less than my best - what a great feeling to make that happen! In North Carolina I also had a 'make it work' experience: after my horn suffered a spill (in its case), I was unable to assemble it. With only a few minutes before the first of four concerts that day started, I had to run to a high school and borrow a horn! The two schools that helped me out were very kind, considering they had no idea who I was, and lent me student horns for a couple hours. With the second piece of the concerts a horn solo, I had to make it work and go for it! Happily, the concerts went well and I got my horn fixed when I returned to Indy. It was quite an experience, but I'm glad I now know I can handle any curve balls that head my way!

Well, it has been a busy fall, to put it mildly, and will only remain just as hectic! But busy is good, because it means doing what I love. I just got back from Canadian Thanksgiving (yes, we eat turkey up there too!) and two days of teaching at Wilfrid Laurier University. I left for Canada immediately after returning from my October tour with Bay Street Brassworks, and returned the day of our first Columbus Indiana Philharmonic rehearsal for our chamber orchestra concert. During this time, I learned several valuable lessons, maybe the most so being efficiency - on many levels! Doing so much teaching and playing, I found myself preaching and practicing to be efficient in what we do, and in what we think. For me, this manifested in many ways. First, I had to be efficient in my energy levels! When spending dozens of hours on the road and living in hotels, you have to figure out exactly how much energy to expend and how much to save so that you are at your peak energy levels for each performance. I found this balance by eating well and avoiding fast food when possible, exercising daily-especially when I was tired, and maintaining a regular sleep schedule. Efficiency in playing was also important: with up to 3 concerts daily and many rehearsals surrounding that, I had to manage my chops and my endurance - I had to figure out how much I could give on each performance, and where I could give myself little 'breaks' in terms of mental and physical energy while still achieving musical excellence. For me, this was the epitome of efficiency - let the air do half the work, let musical thought do the rest, and the tiny details take care of themselves. Being less lip-based and more voice and air-based in my playing also meant that at the end of a long week, I still had chops left to do what I needed to in the days to come.

In my teaching at Laurier, I spent time talking about efficiency in practice sessions. In lessons we often talked about strategies to be more efficient with our learning, our practice time and thereby maximizing results. In the brass masterclass, I spoke about being more efficient mentally with positive focus and thinking of fewer, better priorities while performing. When we try to think of everything at once, we are inevitably overwhelmed! Finally, we talked about efficiency in performance preparation, and how to maximize our training by performing more in the practice rooms and more frequently to improve our final product.

It has been a great month teaching and playing, and I am happy to have shared so many wonderful experiences with so many fantastic people - I can't wait until the next round! Hoping you too have a happy, efficient, day!